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Guides

Getting Started

The Vehicle Fair Trade sign-up screen

Create Your Vehicle Fair Trade Account

Create a Vehicle Fair Trade account in three steps: sign up with your email, verify it, and turn on two-factor. Start on the free tier, no card.

· 3 min read

The Create your dealership page in Vehicle Fair Trade, with the directory search ready for a dealership name

Create your dealership on Vehicle Fair Trade

Create your dealership on Vehicle Fair Trade in minutes: find your store in the directory, claim it with a verified work email, and choose a plan.

· 4 min read

A decoded VIN showing make, model, year, and trim in an evaluation

Decode a VIN in Vehicle Fair Trade

Enter a 17-character VIN and VFT fills in the make, model, year, trim, and engine. Decoding is free on every plan and starts every evaluation.

· 2 min read

A Help mode tour popover highlighting a button on the Vehicle Fair Trade evaluations page

Help mode: guided tours of Vehicle Fair Trade

Help mode walks you through Vehicle Fair Trade with guided tooltips on each page. Learn what the tours cover and how to turn Help mode on or off.

· 3 min read

The wholesaler contacts list in Vehicle Fair Trade

Manage Your Wholesaler Contacts

Add, edit, and remove the wholesalers your evaluations get sent to. Your buyer list is the engine of the blast, here's how to keep it current in VFT.

· 3 min read

The dealership settings screen in Vehicle Fair Trade

Set Up Your Dealership in Vehicle Fair Trade

Set your dealership details, confirm the number your texts go out from, and choose your evaluation defaults. A few minutes of setup before your first send.

· 3 min read

The Vehicle Fair Trade wholesale workflow from appraisal to winning offer

What Is Vehicle Fair Trade? Wholesale Bidding, Explained

Vehicle Fair Trade is wholesale bidding software for car dealers: appraise a trade, text it to your own wholesalers, and collect competing offers. No auction.

· 3 min read

Evaluations

Vehicle photos attached to an evaluation, ready to send to wholesalers

Add Photos to an Evaluation for Honest Offers

Upload photos to an evaluation and they go to your wholesalers with the unit. Real photos get real offers. What to shoot and how to add them in VFT.

· 3 min read

A new vehicle evaluation being built in Vehicle Fair Trade

Create an Evaluation in Vehicle Fair Trade

Decode the VIN, confirm the build, add a value and photos, and your evaluation is ready to send to wholesalers. Most of it pre-fills. Here's the flow.

· 2 min read

Editing an existing evaluation in Vehicle Fair Trade

Edit or Duplicate an Evaluation

Fix a detail after you've built an evaluation, or duplicate one to start a near-identical unit fast. How editing and duplicating work in VFT.

· 2 min read

Bids lined up on a vehicle evaluation, ready to compare

Record and Manage Bids on an Evaluation

Bids attach to the evaluation, pulled from replies or added by hand. Approve the winner, mark a bad offer, remove a mistake. Every change is on the record.

· 2 min read

The public wholesaler view of an evaluation in a browser

Share the Public Wholesaler Link

Every evaluation has a public link a wholesaler can open in a browser, no account, to see the full unit: details, photos, and the Carfax link. How to share it.

· 2 min read

A vehicle evaluation in VFT showing vehicle details, value, photos, and offers

What Is a Vehicle Evaluation in VFT?

A vehicle evaluation is the appraisal record for one unit, the thing you send to wholesalers. What goes in it and how it flows from VIN to winning bid.

· 3 min read

Window Stickers

An OEM window sticker generated from a VIN in Vehicle Fair Trade

Generate a Window Sticker for a Vehicle

Enter a VIN and VFT looks up the OEM window sticker, trim, factory options, and MSRP. Use it to confirm the build and pre-fill the evaluation. Step by step.

· 2 min read

An OEM window sticker showing a vehicle's factory options and original MSRP

OEM Window Stickers by VIN for Car Dealers

Pull a vehicle's OEM window sticker by VIN to confirm the exact factory options, then pre-fill the evaluation. Here's how dealers use it to appraise straight.

· 4 min read

CBB Values

Drilling down through the Canadian Black Book catalog by year, make, and model

Browse the Canadian Black Book Catalog

No VIN handy? Browse the Canadian Black Book catalog by year, make, model, series, and style to find a vehicle and its values. When to browse vs decode.

· 2 min read

Canadian Black Book wholesale and trade-in values shown on a vehicle evaluation

Canadian Black Book Trade-In Values for Dealers

Canadian Black Book gives a daily wholesale and trade-in value by VIN. See how dealers use CBB inside an appraisal, and why the bid still sets the price.

· 4 min read

Canadian Black Book values pulled onto an evaluation from a VIN

Look Up a Canadian Black Book Value by VIN

Decode a VIN and VFT pulls the Canadian Black Book wholesale and retail values for that exact vehicle, onto the evaluation. The fast way to a starting number.

· 2 min read

SMS & Wholesalers

Wholesaler conversation threads in Vehicle Fair Trade

Manage Your Wholesaler Conversations

Every wholesaler gets a live conversation thread in VFT. Read replies, search across threads, and soft-delete a message while keeping the full history.

· 2 min read

An evaluation being sent by SMS to a list of wholesalers

Send an Evaluation by SMS to Wholesalers

Open a finished evaluation, pick your wholesalers, and blast it by SMS in one shot. Their replies come back as offers. The step-by-step send in VFT.

· 2 min read

A wholesale evaluation sent by SMS to several wholesalers with offers coming back

Text Your Wholesalers a Trade, Get Offers Back

Send a trade to every wholesaler at once by text and collect their offers in one place. Here's how dealers run the wholesale blast in VFT, no phone tag.

· 4 min read

The Enable Consent dialog in Vehicle Fair Trade confirming a wholesaler consents to receiving evaluations

Getting Wholesaler SMS Consent

Before VFT texts a wholesaler, they opt in. How SMS consent works, why it matters for your number, and where you handle it when setting up a buyer.

· 2 min read

AI Bid Extraction

A wholesaler text reply with the offer amount pulled out and added to the evaluation as a bid

Automatic Bid Extraction: AI Reads the Offer for You

AI bid extraction reads wholesaler texts, pulls out the offer amount, and adds it to the evaluation as a bid, after a human check. Stop re-keying numbers.

· 3 min read

An extracted bid amount waiting for confirmation before it's recorded

Review and Confirm Extracted Bids

When VFT reads an offer out of a wholesaler's text, you confirm it before it's saved. How the human-review gate works, and how to fix a misread.

· 2 min read

Carfax Reports

A Carfax report link pasted onto an evaluation

Attach a Carfax Report to an Evaluation

Paste a Carfax report's link onto an evaluation and your wholesalers get a clickable Open Carfax Report when you send the unit. The manual-link workflow.

· 2 min read

An evaluation with a clickable Open Carfax Report link for wholesalers

Carfax Vehicle History Reports on an Evaluation

Attach a Carfax vehicle history report to an evaluation so wholesalers can open the full history, and surface declared damage before you sign, not after.

· 3 min read

Comparables

Comparable live vehicle listings shown next to an evaluation

Comparables in an Evaluation

See what comparable units are actually asking, right on the evaluation, instead of web-shopping comps by hand. How dealers use comparables in VFT.

· 3 min read

The Inventory Pricing dashboard in Vehicle Fair Trade showing each vehicle's market verdict

Inventory Pricing: Check Your Whole Lot vs Market

See whether every vehicle in your inventory is priced above, at, or below market in one view. How Inventory Pricing works in Vehicle Fair Trade.

· 4 min read

Comparable listings shown alongside a vehicle evaluation

See Comparables on an Evaluation

Open an evaluation and VFT shows trim-matched comparable listings for that unit, so you can sanity-check your number against what similar cars are asking.

· 2 min read

The standalone Comparables tool in Vehicle Fair Trade

Use the Standalone Comparables Tool

Look up comparable listings for a vehicle without building a full evaluation. When to use the standalone Comparables tool and how it works in VFT.

· 2 min read

Statistics

A dealer statistics dashboard with evaluation and offer trends

Dealer Statistics Dashboard: Know Your Numbers

The dealer statistics dashboard shows your evaluations, offers, response times, and which wholesalers actually bid. Know your wholesale numbers in VFT.

· 3 min read

Account & Billing

Profile and dealership settings screens in Vehicle Fair Trade

Dealer and Profile Settings

Your profile holds your personal details; your dealership settings hold the store-wide ones, including the require-Carfax option. What lives where in VFT.

· 3 min read

The subscription management screen in Vehicle Fair Trade

Manage Your Subscription

Upgrade or downgrade your VFT plan from your account when your workflow changes. Where to manage your subscription and what changes when you switch tiers.

· 2 min read

The Vehicle Fair Trade pricing page banner: simple, transparent pricing for car dealers, start free

Plans and Features: What Comes With Each VFT Plan

Which features come with each Vehicle Fair Trade plan, Minoune, Certifié, and Flambant, plus the usage limits. A feature-by-plan comparison, no sales call.

· 4 min read